Hundreds of buildings in Rohingya villages have been torched, satellite images released this week show. This comes as deadly fighting has flared in the strife-torn region of western Myanmar.
The crisis and reports of grave rights abuses being carried out in tandem with the security crackdown have put international pressure on Myanmar's new civilian government and raised questions about its ability to control its own military. The deadly violence in Rakhine has deepened and complicated a crisis that already posed a critical challenge to the new administration led by former pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar has simmered with religious tension ever since waves of violence between the majority Buddhist population and the Muslim Rohingya left more than 200 dead in 2012. The then junta-led government pushed more than 100,000 people, mostly Rohingya, into displacement camps where they have since languished.
International rights groups - which applauded Suu Kyi's ascension to power in recent elections - complain that the minority still faces apartheid-like restrictions on movement and have repeatedly called on her to work toward a solution. But Buddhist nationalists at home oppose granting citizenship to Muslims, despite their long roots in the Southeast Asian country.
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